Data centres & digital services 8 Mar 2023

Data centres enable the digital services we use every day, from emails, banking, healthcare, education, retail, remote work and whilst there is much development needed, we want to highlight some of the progress and contributions being made by the industry.

To decarbonise their operations, Data centres are often at the forefront of tech innovation for cooling technologies and investment in renewable energy projects (solar, wind, hydrogen). In fact, most data centres achieve BREEAM or LEED certifications for their design approach to sustainability, implementing measures to reduce energy and water consumption, minimise waste, pollution and enhance health and wellbeing of building occupants.

Synergies with local authorities and communities allow data centres the opportunity to feed into heating networks to provide space heating to nearby homes, schools, hospitals (We’ve seen cases in Denmark and London).

Initiatives like the Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact seek to accelerate the decarbonisation of data centres by promoting energy efficiency, renewable energy to meet 75% of demand by 2025 and 100% by 2030, water use efficiency based on regional climate, circular economy practices for server equipment and circular energy for exporting excess heat. The goal is to make data centres climate neutral by 2030 (quicker than other industries).


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